First thoughts on Georgia – South Carolina, or, as I like to refer to it, the “hasn’t seen” game. As in, Georgia hasn’t seen as good a defense this year as the Gamecocks’ D. As in, South Carolina hasn’t seen an offense remotely in the same class as Georgia’s. As in, the Dawgs haven’t seen a running back of the caliber of Marcus Lattimore. As in, the ‘Cocks haven’t seen as good a quarterback as Aaron Murray. As in…

I think you get my point. Anyway, a few specifics:

Very different challenge for Georgia’s defense this week. Gone is the scary downfield passing attack, to be replaced by a quarterback who’s been as efficient as Murray throwing the ball and is also an effective runner. Not to mention a tough son of a gun.

Oh, yeah. There’s that Marcus Lattimore fellow. He’s not bad. Matt Hinton had a good piece about Lattimore that he posted before the Kentucky game in which he pointed out that Lattimore hasn’t been dominating South Carolina’s offensive numbers this season because Spurrier hasn’t needed him to. Cue the Kentucky game – the ‘Cocks are down 17-7 at the half and what does the OBC do? He dials up a heavy dose of his stud running back (10 carries for 61 yards in an 81-yard touchdown drive in the third quarter that put South Carolina up 28-17) to fuel a 31-point run and an easy win. Basically what Spurrier’s done is keep Lattimore in second-game shape even though the season’s five weeks old now.

So what does that mean for Grantham? Well, for one thing, he won’t have his safeties lined up halfway to Watkinsville this week. For another, unlike the last two seasons, he’ll have a full quiver to shoot from, with no players out due to suspension or injury. The goal this week will be containment – controlling the zone read play and the intermediate passing game which Shaw has executed well.

Another thing to keep an eye on is that South Carolina ran out of the I-formation a good bit against Kentucky. It’s a smart way both to protect Shaw’s shoulder and to pound on the defensive front to wear it out to enable Lattimore to control the fourth quarter in the way we’re all too sadly familiar with. In other words, it’s a big test for the new strength and conditioning regime. Also, I hope Grantham backs off from playing Jenkins and Geathers together so much; keeping them fresh for the inevitable strikes me as a good strategy.

What is Bobo going to do about those defensive ends? Throw the kitchen sink at ’em, I expect, in hopes of keeping them off-balance. One thing I know is that he can’t expect Theus to handle Devin Taylor by himself all game. I do think the Dawgs will have some success moving the ball on the ground, but I’m scared to death of a couple of Murray turnovers coming by way of a fierce pass rush. Aaron’s got to be smart about not holding the ball too long. Also, expect lots and lots of max protect. Which may be fine, as I’m not as impressed with the ‘Cocks secondary as I am with their front seven. And I’m not forgetting that Georgia moved the ball on these guys throughout last year’s game.

I’m not sure I really want to talk about special teams. Moving Mitchell out of punt return duty should help, but we can’t be sure until we see McGowan in action. I keep thinking that a game is going to come along where the extra point adventure is going to come back and bite Georgia in the butt. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if this week’s game proved to be that point. On the other hand, I keep thinking Ace Sanders on punt returns is a turnover waiting to happen if the right guy times the right hit.

Oh, and that silly Spurrier tiff with Ron Morris? I’ve seen someone suggest it’s the Evil Genius’ brilliant strategy for taking attention away from the game. (Question not addressed: why would he care about that?) Andy Staples thinks it was a distraction in the Kentucky game. Me, I just think Spurrier is a little bored. His team is functioning well and is in a post-Garcia era with no real major distractions. He’s got no players who need messing with, so the media makes a convenient target. Will any of that make a difference Saturday night? I don’t think so.

74 responses to “… and turning towards South Carolina.”

In regards to their defensive ends, I’m wondering if we can iron out the kinks in that fly sweep we were running against Tennessee. Forcing them to keep contain on that might slow them getting up the field a bit. I bet we’ll see more two back and some chipping at them too. My main hope is that when they do whip their blocker our guys don’t nut up and make a bad situation worse…

Tenn put on a clinic on negating a big pass rush last week. In addition to running laterally, we could learn from them. They killed us on that shovel pass to the RB several times when we brought the house. Their max protect package (and uncalled holding penalties) were also very effective agains J Jones and company. And their Oline played a brilliant overall game. It only fell apart late when Bray held the ball too long and / or succumbed to the late game pressure to perform in a heroic manner.

We rolled up 436 yards of offense on those ends with Ellis Johnson calling the D last year. Averaged 4.9 yards per carry. Threw for 248 yards and 4 TDs and average 8.9 yards per attempt. Murray posted a 178 passer rating. While their defense gets some credit for cashing in our three gifts into TDs, in the end, we beat ourselves. I believe Bobo and Murray know how to attack this defense and with a better stable of running backs and receivers this year, I like our chances.

Listened to sports radio driving through SC recently. Gosh, this should be pumped into the locker room sound system everytime the Dawgs are in there. Those clowns are ridiculous. It’s funny, I guess, but they’re collective memory of relevant past games is, in a word, short. No statements like, “reminds me of 1998 against WTF U..”. They have no relevant past!

Folks, you can daydream all you want to; waste energy telling yourself Steve Spurrier is a dick, etc, etc.

South Carolina is a good football team, balanced on offense, ferocious on defense.

I suffered through all that blabber about winning national championships and playing Bama in the dome last week.

You see what happens when you challenge the Kharmic Bitches and wear the cloak of dark hubris?

What happens is turnovers, goofy special teams and a doze off by the defense during the second quarter.

I see this as a very even game between two good teams with good coaching staffs.

The Bitches slapped us around and we still managed to win. But that won’t be Derek Dooley on the sidelines in the Parking Lot from Hell on Saddy nite, and it won’t be Rajion Neal running the football for South Carolina.

Please folks, hunker down….this is going to be an Old Man Football war.
Our way of life against their way of life, the biggest game Georgia has played in the regular season since…..South Carolina in 1980?….oh, and Lattimore don’t fumble much.

I don’t think this was a given. Miami and OSU were both undefeated as well, and back then giving the SEC team priority in such a situation wasn’t assumed like it is now. And besides, we still had to get through Auburn, which was no cake walk.

Nobody is, Scorp. Looks to me like everyone thinks it’s going to be a war.
Actually, though, you DO realize that nothing any of us says, thinks, expects, hopes for, writes about or bloviates about has one iota of influence on how these things play out, don’t you? (rhetorical question, don’t be offended)
If everyone on here is in total agreement on how the game should be approached, planned and played, guess what? It don’t make Jack Shit.
I’m nervous too, but I’d rather be a field-goal underdog to the cluckers at home than to be fifty point favorites against FAU in Athens. Competition is what the players want. That’s why they play. That’s why I watch. It’s fun.
Of course, I realize you’re hyperbole (at least I think that’s what it is) is a balm for the fear of being dissapointed….as in “well, I was pretty much sure we would lose anyway”. I’m that way myself. But it’s more fun to say “I told y’all we were going to win”. So have some watered down coolaid…or can someone tell me what flavor goes best with rum?

Dear Mr. Ugly….I have had this discussion before, maybe you missed it.

“Actually, though, you DO realize that nothing any of us says, thinks, expects, hopes for, writes about or bloviates about has one iota of influence on how these things play out, don’t you? (rhetorical question, don’t be offended)”

1) How’s 29’s groin?
2) We’ll need to utilize the screen game (Murray needs to be practicing a little touch on those heat seeking missiles he has been throwing to the backs)
3) I’d like to see us move the pocket with Murray a good bit.

Well # 2 will doom us because the screens and the wheel routes are not in AM’s playbook. He is awful throwing screens and as you said throws the swing pass too damn hard. I see total turnover city if AM throws screen passes. I hope this post is Scorpio approved.

Couldn’t agree more. I can see Clowney or the other end jumping up to defend a screen and making very bad things happen. I’d prefer AM cut them up with 10-15 yard throws. If 3 and 4 can get some holes from the OL, it will keep the Cocks’ front 7 honest enough to play the run so that they can’t pin their ears back. And if AM can hit his receivers (and they catch the ball), it will keep the safeties from moving up into run support too fast. The past few years, we just haven’t run the ball well against these guys (unless I’m forgetting something).

I keep thinking about how good Crowell looked against them last year. With 2 (or 3) backs able to perform like that, I like our chances. But freshmen ball security, playing against a grown man defense for the first time, gives me pause. It’s an equal point/counter point like every other freakin’ matchup in this game.

I really think it’ll come down to if we protect the ball or not. We have a better qb and more skill guys. We’ll have better odds of scoring more points than them if we don’t turn it over. It’s cliche, but it looks to be true this week.

I overheard SC fans talking on the Bill King show this morning that Aaron Murray is not as good as Conner Shaw because he has not beaten a ranked team, evah. They also basically called our defense out… calling them a overated. In fact, they said Aaron, our defense, and Coach Richt were all overated.

While I don’t necessarily agree w/ them, that’s a fair statement. AM hasn’t beaten a major opponent in a big game. When he’s been in such a position, he’s often been the reason we lost. He has the potential to be the best college QB this season, though.

As for defense, I can’t say that I’ve seen any game that would suggest we’re not overrated. We played well against Mizzou and Vandy. We played poorly against Tenn (second half), Buff (first half), and the entire Fl. Atl. was completely uninspiring. Given the preseason hype, I’d say we’re definitely looking overrated. However, we have the potential to be the best D in college football. Now that all hats are present and the rust presumably shaken off, we have the opportunity to give South Carolina hell.

Calling CMR overrated is absurd. He’s one of the winningest coaches in NCAA but has still been on the hotseat the past few years. I don’t think anybody is overhyping CMR.

I think this is going to be an ugly game. SC’s front seven is going to expose our young o-line’s weaknesses. I think our offense will give up at least 1 defensive touchdown.

While Spurrier has been keeping Lattimore fresh, I don’t see that happening this game. I think he’s going to run the dog shit out of Lattimore. It’s been a proven recipe for success against UGA. While Shaw is good, I think we have the personnel to cause him to screw up and exploit it. Lattimore is simply dominant, though. Quite simply, I don’t see Shaw carving up our defense this week.

I think our keys for success are the following:
(1) Win the field position battle. Our offense doesn’t have to score every drive, and I’ll be shocked if they do. However, our offense cannot make costly turnovers ON OUR HALF of the field. More importantly, we cannot have poor decisions made by the return man in PR and KOR.

(2) We need a big game from our defense. Defensive touchdowns would be great, but we need to keep SC in 3rd and long situtations. In big games, Jarvis Jones tends to play his best. See UF last season; Mizzou this season. If our defense can keep our offense in decent field position, we will eventually score. Gurshall is capable of taking it to the house on any given play. Our receiving corps is always dangerous . . . if they have enough time for the play to develop down field.

(3) Big blocking from the TEs. Big crack blocks from the wideouts. We’re not going to be able to spread it out against this pass rush. We have to win w/ tough runs and play action.

It is obvious that AM must make sound decisions at all points of the game. There are going to be LOTS of ugly plays on offense. There’s nothing wrong with punting it away, but there is w/ trying to do too much, getting careless w/ the pearl, and turning a bad play into a catastrophe. This is really the biggest key, but if AM doesn’t bring his “A” game, all else fails.

As I think about how USC’s offense works, I’m thinking that we’ll see a whole bunch of that Ogletree-Herrera combo that Grantham was testing out against UT. Tree could have a big impact in this game. Glad he’s back.

Another thought… How do you think Sakerlina feels about playing us? You know they gotta have a little discomfort at how our offense is doing. And you know, they keep expecting the real defense to show up at any time. They remember last year too. If we hold off on the fumble sauce and the pick six pickles, we’ll make a club sandwich out of the chickens. I’m going to go with the Chic-fil-a motto: Eat mor chicken!

I agree. How Is 29’s Groin.?. The Dawgs need him healthy.
Both teams will try to run the ball & set up Play Action Passes.
Hope our Tight Ends are ready to block & then run pass routes.
Our best against their best (O & D) Is A Wash..
Other players must play their best game for the Dawgs to win.
Finally, I believe Fla. & Tenn. are both better than they have been credited for. The win over Tenn. was a big deal. GO DAWGS. GATA .

I want everyone to understand that if Connor Shaw runs that read option of theirs the entire game he will not play the whole game. The QB will go down and he will go down hard.
Had a child at USC for several years and never before had this much difficulty finding a hotel room. On that little bit of info I think this is going to be a big one. I’m working on the premise that we just got last years South Carolina game out of our system last week and we’ll hopefully bring our Vanderbilt game. GATA

SOS is going to have his bag of tricks ready on Saturday. The biggest thing I want to see is our defense tackle soundly. Solid hits on Shaw. Wrap up and gang tackle on Lattimore. Hold on and holler in the secondary.

They’ll get their inevitable sacks. We’ll get out inevitable points. Assuming that those two factors don’t completely decide the game, the chance for winning is in making USC sustain drives. They didn’t score on a drive longer than 50 yards against Missouri.

We gave them the game last year with turnovers and special teams implosions. And we still kept it close. If we protect the ball and have a sound day on special teams we win by two touchdowns. We’re the better team hands down we just need to play like it.

No one will want to admit the accuracy of your point, but it is both succint and correct. We were the better team last year and dominated them on the field but gifted the game to them. Very similar to the other night against TN except the result was different. We have 10 players back from that 5th rated defense, and have improved on offense. Only negatives are the Kicker, and they are at home.

There are no excuses, we are better and this team needs to step up and bring the W home. Our guys on offense should be angry about giving the game away last year, and our defense should be angry about getting ridiculed about last week’s performance. The coaching staff needs to motivate the team to break this mini streak and shut the delusional chicken fans, along with their whiney coach up. It is enough they get to the easier schedule of having Arky (a 10 point underdog0 rather than Auburn as their annual rival. Have had this advantage every year they have been in the league.

Yeah, we will always disagree on that, I think that is nuts. The only thing you can say for sure is they were the best team for that 3 hour period based on how the game played out. Do you really think their is no such thing as an upset? Or a blown call that changed the outcome? No need arguing the point, I understand the score is all that matters regarding the record, but I see no validity is stating that the one with the most point is the best….only the winner. Who would win 4-5 of 7 is more the way I determine that, and you are right, there is no way to ever know. That is one of the reasons I I like having a legit playoff,k to detrmine the champion, because we will never know who was best. I think that might be the real reason why we have the internet.

I know I’m probably asking for it by getting involved in this conversation the week before the game, but your argument would carry more weight if there was more evidence suggesting that USC’s win last year was a true upset. That is, if UGA was definitely the better team for the rest of the year. But you weren’t. You can split the remainder of the season in various ways, but at the end of the day, we finished 11-2 and you finished 10-4. Hard to say there was too much difference in terms of how these teams performed over the course of the year. It’s not like we’re talking about a 7-5 team upsetting one with ten wins. This isn’t Kentucky beating LSU in 2007. Also, we were slightly favored by Vegas in the game (as we are again this year), suggesting that unbiased observers figured that we were evenly matched teams. That is, that if we played ten times, we’d probably end up with a pretty even record. You can say that if that game was played again, Murray might not make the same mistakes, but we could easily say that our secondary wouldn’t make the same mistakes the second time around, and we’d have good reason for saying that, because our secondary played worse than usual against you guys, although that certainly had a lot to do with your offense.

In any event, the past is passed, and we’re back to where we started. Unbiased observers see these as evenly matched teams. I hope mine wins, but I won’t be shocked if it doesn’t. We’re about to see what happens. Good luck, gentlemen.

No one will ever know, but I am very certain of UGA being the better team. UGA’s dominance of SC and AU are the two best indicators, and the season record of 10-2 each where UGA won more SEC games serving as a pretty good tie breaker. Just an opinion, same as yours.

None of this influences Saturday’s game but UGA has the better offense, defense looks close with a slight edge to UGA on talent, and an edge to SC on STs. Add the home field edge for SC and intangibles being pretty equal and it could be very close. I won’t wish you good luck, Lord knows you had enough of that already, but I do hope the game is exciting and no players suffer a significant injury.

I’ll give you credit for sticking to your guns. I think you’re being selective with your evidence, but you know that already.

As far as this weekend goes, defensive advantage based on play on the field so far goes to USC. I’ll give you that UGA seems much more talented than the results it’s been getting, though, and that maybe you play better this weekend. Offensive advantage def. goes to UGA, although USC’s offense is trending in a positive direction as Shaw and Lattimore recover from injuries. Lattimore looked close to 100% last weekend vs. UK.

Gamecock man….. Lattimore’s knee will never be 100%. Ligaments are not like a broken bone that gets stronger at the break point. You can compensate for the injury build up the muscles to strengthen and support but it ain’t ever the same. That being said Lattimore gets a certain number of miles on that knee this season. Ride him to victory against the Dawgs? You just might. However, given the next two consecutive games are against two of the better Ds in the SEC the ride stops. You may take one of the three games and that one may well be against the Dawgs…… but you lose the other two. I think the Dawgs can go the SECC whether they beat your gamecocks or not.

You’re right about ligaments, but Lattimore has looked much better the last two games. He’s probably as close to 100% as he’ll be this year. He’s also very fresh and hasn’t had any of those 40-carry games he had while Garcia was around. As far as what happens after Georgia, we’ll see.

OK same song … different verse. He will never be 100%. You fudged a little with the “Lattimore has looked much better the last two games” meme. He had more yards receiving than running against the Zou. WR and RB respond/recover from ACL surgery differently. OK? Neither of your studs (qb, RB) are 100% healthy. I hope they force SOS into running Lattimore early and often. I hope Shaw has to be mobile and run the ball. That’s my plan. Pound on your studs rotate the Georgia LBs and keep them fresh. From one armchair qb to another. 😉

I agree that SC gets the edge on what we have seen on the field so I get your rationale. I am thinking that team with the #5 defense a year ago that returns 10 players is better than what the stats say, so I may be naive to think it will surface this weekend in a big, hyped game, but that is what I think will happen. Several of these guys have draft potential, this week’s performance on a huge stage is “showtime” for them. We will all see who has analyzed this correctly Saturday night, until then it is just two fans calling it form a biased perspective. May be better than “good”, looking like one the Top 3 SEC games of the year.

Yeah, I can see your point. Usually I would say that five games in, what we’ve seen on the field is who these teams are. However, it stands to reason that UGA hasn’t been able to settle in yet on defense due to the suspensions. Maybe that happens this weekend, maybe not.

The scotch is strong is this one. Well said. I, too, think that is the biggest reason to support a playoff. It is ridiculous for pollsters to attempt to guess which team is the “best” for purposes of post-season pairing. College football needs to get over this idea. In Giants v. Pats Pt. I, I don’t think anybody could have said that the Giants were the “better” team. However, it is undisputable that–within the rules of the game–they were the champions.

I strongly agree with the last thing you said. One of the keys to this game is who takes the early lead. If USC leads midway through the third, we’ll likely be able to ride Lattimore out to the win. If UGA leads, particularly by more than one score, I’m not sure if the USC offense is built to make a comeback in that situation.

I don’t see that much offense in this game. I think the total points scored may be in the low 40s, both defenses seem to be holding the cards, maybe something along the lines of 26-17. But in these days of scoring in CFB that may be two planets off, just don’t think so in this game. Seems more like the usual UGA/SC battles.

I agree, but I think there will be defensive TDs or special teams TDs. At the least, I think there will be offensive TDs scored off a short field b/c of a combiation of outstanding defensive play coupled w/ sloppy offensive play. Both defenses have serious playmakers who will exploit the mistakes. I would love, though, to see a dramatic, low-scoring game. I think there will be a higher point total, but I don’t think either side will have much more than 320 yds.

You are right, STs and TOs/defensive scores could bloat the total well beyond my expectations. I think both teams play this one close the the vest so it should keep the turnovers down. Going to be fun to watch.

I would slightly disagree with the “ain’t seen” premise because, unlike many of my learned colleagues, the Tennessee team I saw was clearly a better team the day Georgia played them than any of the other teams either Georgia or South Carolina has played.

Whether this will have any impact on the cosmic transparency of the Georgia-South Carolina game, who knows?